Plus: A new start for Nat Sherman in New York
Los Angeles, January 14 – Havana cigars have been presented in boxes, tins, tubes and jars for decades, but one of the strangest containers of all showed up and drew lively interest on eBay this past weekend.

A so-called "branch of the tree cabinet" was up for auction, a format which has been out of production for nearly 30 years. The cabinet was a two-piece cylinder that held 25 cigars, in this case Sancho Panza Tronquitos, measuring 5 1/2 inches long and 42 ring gauge.

The cylinder itself was lined with a cedar sheet, but the exterior was made, according to the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars of lacquered natural tree bark which was fashioned into a tubed shape. The finished product looked like a tree trunk with a branch cut off near the trunk.

This odd presentation wasn't that uncommon prior to the nationalization of the Cuban cigar industry in 1960, having been used by Cifuentes y Cia. for both its Partagas and Ramon Allones brands. F. Palicio y Cia. also used this format for its Hoyo de Monterrey lines.

Following nationalization, at least three brands were offered using this "box." The most unusual was for the Siboney brand (pictured above), of which very little is known and was not even reported to be in production until 1988. However, a specimen of the Branch of the Tree cabinet marked for Siboney Coronas was sold on eBay and apparently dates from around 1980, when it was acquired by the University of British Columbia for its History of Advertising archive.

Two other brands – Romeo y Julieta and Sancho Panza – also used the Branch of the Tree cabinet for one model of cigars. The Romeo y Julietas were known as "Arbolados" and the Sancho Panzas as "Tronquitos" and the latter was up for action, ending yesterday. Both cigars were coronas (5 1/2 inches by 42 ring) and this format was produced until at least 1979, the last time it appeared in Havana cigar catalogs.

The Sancho Panza Tronquitos cabinet auctioned on Sunday was in good condition with the interior cedar sheet enclosed. It drew a total of nine bids and sold for a final price of $459.67, just a little less than the $502.00 the Siboney cabinet earned two years ago.

Another oddball cigar package is up this week from the same Canadian seller. It appears to be a pre-embargo wooden jar for the Jose L. Piedra brand, a minor line which originated way back in the 1880s. It’s in good condition and has no markings of any kind, which clearly indicates it is not a post-Revolution product. Even without any cigars included, the starting price is pretty hefty, at $249.99.

Welcome around the world, but at home in New York:
"The store itself is a figurehead location. In dollars and cents it’s not that significant, but we take great pride in being here."

That's Joel Sherman, head of the Nat Sherman company, showing his new flagship store in New York off to reporter Farnoosh Torabi for a report in amNY.